The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Google-Firefox search deal reportedly worth $900 million

December 22, 2011 | 2:34
pm

Google is reportedly paying Mozilla about $900 million over the next three years to remain the default search engine in the Firefox Web browser.

The two parties this week renewed their longstanding partnership to keep Google as the default search engine, rather than moving to alternative such as Yahoo or Microsoft's Bing. When the agreement was announced, neither disclosed financial terms.

On Thursday, the website AllThingsD reported that the deal would call for Google to pay the nonprofit Mozilla about $300 million a year for the next three years.

"We're pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google," Mozilla said in a blog post Tuesday. "This new agreement extends our long-term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years."

Mozilla said the financial details weren't disclosed because the deal is "subject to traditional confidentiality requirements."

If the AllThingsD report is true, the new deal would be a huge revenue increase: Mozilla's total revenue last year was just $123 million, according to the website ZDNet.